Over the past two years, investigations conducted by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel have uncovered a whole slew of shady tactics being used in operations conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. During their research, Sentinel reporters found ATF agents prey on mentally ill teenagers (including ATF agents pressuring at least one young man to get a squid tattooed on his neck) to "help" with gun stings and found agents lost a fully automatic rifle on the streets of Milwaukee after it was stolen out of an unsupervised government vehicle. Careless actions from agents also resulted in thousands of dollars in damages to a rented storefront and the exposure of the names belonging to undercover agents. These actions aren't isolated incidents, but instead are happening all over the country. Here's more background on that: